Guy Ritchie's The Covenant

Director Guy Ritchie is no stranger to crafting exciting action films, but his latest project is quite different than his previous work. The narrative is linear, there aren’t any montages, and the story isn’t about criminals, gangsters, or Brits. Fans of Ritchie will absolutely still recognize his visual style (hello, overhead shots) and testosterone-fueled themes, but “The Covenant” is a more dramatic, mature, and restrained work from the legendary director.

Set during the war in Afghanistan in 2018, the film tells the story of U.S. Army sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) and h...

After Guy Ritchie’s last film, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, was an absolute disaster, I seriously considered skipping his most recent outing, The Covenant. However, I'm very happy I didn't because it's become one of my favorite films of the year so far.

The direction is excellent, with amazing up-close shots and zooms that really add to the intense nature of the film. The first hour flew by with fantastic build-up and character development. The action was superb and brutally realistic, showcasing the true horrors of the War in Afghanistan in a respectable way. However, after this fi...

A staggering tale of an unhinged perseverance which is backed by a captivating screenplay.


Air is a story so frivolous and flat , that the courage of Ben Affleck should be lauded with our hats down. A simple plot which would fit within 3 lines of a page is magically presented to us as a fascinating and appealing peace of history which changed the strature of business in sports in America and revolutionized a global culture, Nike's collaboration with the greatest basketball player in the history of the game, "Michael Jordan". The 2 hours doesn't feel long when you have a dazzling screenpla...

Seems to be a growing trend nowadays to lead with the credentials of the director in order to get eyeballs onto a movie. That's what seems to have happened here, but once you're watching it turns out to be little better than a derivative vehicle for an unremarkable Jake Gyllenhaal who gets to tug at the heart strings on behalf of those vital interpreters (50,000 of them, apparently) who were abandoned to the Taliban when the allied forces quit Afghanistan. In this rather procedural effort, his guide "Ahmed" (Dar Salim) goes above and beyond to rescue his handler "Kinley" from ambush only to fi...

This strikes me as a "feel good movie" pitched at US audiences. It ultimately makes all the right sounds about military honour and commitment, even when confronted by stubborn bureaucracy and indifference.

That said, its only at the end, when you read the "fine print", (300+ interpreters and their families dead) you get to see the scope of the US's lack of commitment to those who collaborated with it, in Afghanistan.

I guess the obvious elephant in the living room, is should the US have invaded in the first place? Looking at the facts, the answer is, of course, "no". So much of the mis...